Trump Brought A Cheering Team to Create the Illusion of CIA Support on TV

Just have to keep that in mind FOR ALL FUTURE SPEECHES BY PREZZY D TRUMP WHEN I HEAR WILD TEEN PEP RALLY CHEERING EPISODES IN RESPONSE TO HIS AWFUL ORATING.

I'm going to be moving to a VAN DOWN BY THE RIVER! NO TV! NO RADIO! NO TRUMP!

 

What kind of a loser claps uncontrollably for something they don't approve of because someone else starts clapping? Who would have thought that trained, hardened, CIA would have self esteem issues and need acceptance.

 

But Trump’s seemingly warm reception might have been manufactured, according to The Washington Post’s lead fact-checker, Glenn Kessler. “The pool reports indicate the cheering and clapping was not from the CIA staffers but people who accompanied Trump,” Kessler tweeted.

 

Prove it. Claims require evidence so Mr. Kessler has to prove his claim. That's the way accusations and truths work here in America.

But I stand with everyone who says "who cares." Crowd size, clapping, who gives a ****. We've got real problems to cover and fix but all these media outlets just want to be gossip rags now. Embarrassing.

 

Trump cares you idiot. Tell Trump to spend his energy on policies and not bringing cheering squads.

 

Strong man, dictator type behavior. Something I'd expect from Kim Jong-un and not the President of the United States.

 

This is believable because he had a cheering section in his last press conference.

 

When I worked at Compaq (acquired by HP), we were told that Carly would visit the campus and we were instructed to line the "spine" (hallways) to give her a warm Texas welcome. Folks waved, applauded and cheered her as she was led through the hallways by her handlers. Years later, as she was already mostly disliked by Houston-based HP workers, she would appear for company meetings. Her handlers (her close circle, including her communicates team, would lead the meeting attendees in applause, despite the lack of raises and numerous layoffs.

Folks in a meeting with an executive (in this case, the President of the United States... the CIA employees biggest boss) would certainly follow the lead of applauding, if for the only reason to be polite.

 

That's weak.

But to be fair those folks were powerless and scared. That said, they were powerless on their own accord so they share the responsibility for working there and putting themselves in that position. I guess you could say CIA staff also have fear and uncertainty right now but we should all expect more out of them.

 

Explain to them that clapping is not necessary unless they agree. Problem solved.

 

So, he brings in his own suck ups to clap for him, to make stupid people think he is popular?

This is not surprising, Trump is an idiot.

DD

 

That's "weak"? That's human nature. That's why TV shows put laugh tracks and applause tracks in shows, and why Trump brought along his human versions in an embarrassing display of deceit. But how does that Tammy Wynette go? Oh yea... Stand by your Man, wah wah waaah.

 

Explain to them there will be video of who clapped and who did not clap, and jobs and raises will depend on that lol.

 

I have a hunch the attendees (those not brought in by Trump, that is) weren't expecting him to use the opportunity to speak in front of the CIA memorial wall to talk about how many people supported him and how many people attended his inauguration instead of honoring those CIA agents memorialized by the wall he was standing in front of.

 

I really dialyse Trump. I think he is a conman who will be terrible for the US and the world.

That being said. I think this is very common. So not a big deal. I think most politicians do this at lage rallies. To avoid a "please clap" jeb bush moment.

 

(1) Agree. Barely thread worthy, in the end, except that the press needs to be on top of this when they report "applause" from a given group. Now it should have a footnote, if anyone really cares.
(2) Disagree completely. He does idiotic things but may often have a purpose. In the end, he'd flunk advanced math, and definitely European history, sure, but he's no fool. Thinking he's an idiot is really dangerous, TBH.

 

I disagree Bob, I think he is an idiot - that he doesn't really understand, but worse, doesn't really CARE that he doesn't understand.

DD

 

This is my intuition as well. I don't know if other politicians would seed in sycophants for a CIA meeting, but I expect this is probably best practice for venues where getting positive crowd engagement is important for optics. I'm sure Clinton campaign rallies, for example, had designated applauders.

Not to compare Trump to Stalin, but commentary on Stalin often makes a distinction between intelligence and shrewdness, giving him credit for the latter. He really knew how to work the system and work people, but his education wasn't great, he didn't have much grasp of the philosophical underpinning of Marxist Bolshevism, and historians are loathe to say he was intelligent. So they say he was very shrewd. I think of Trump that way. In many ways, I think he's an idiot. Maybe a better description is that I think he's a fool in the sense that he has a serious deficit in wisdom. But, he's very shrewd about working the system and manipulating people to get the things he wants. That's a skillset of its own, so I agree people should give him that credit and not underestimate him.

Speaking of Stalin, during the purges, he'd get enthusiastic standing ovations for speeches that would last over 10 minutes. No one wanted to be the first to stop clapping because Stalin had informants in the room. And people did get purged as counter-revolutionaries because they stopped the applause, despite going for a good 10-12 minutes first. So, yeah, it could be worse.

 

I get the feeling many people in this country do not really want democracy, what they really want is authoritarian or dictatorship government that agrees with their view, they only pay lip service to Democracy.